High Receiver Sensitivity at 2.5 Gb/s obtained with a Highly Efficient Low Noise Diode Pumped Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier

Abstract

Laser diode pumped Erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) with low noise figures and high saturation powers are attractive because the ratio between the saturation power and the noise figure can be considered as a figure of merit for several applications [1], These include multichannel receivers where high sensitivity and high saturation power increases the number of channels to be received and in-line applications where the dynamic range is proportional to the above mentioned figure of merit.